Four regional languages of Himachal Pradesh Baghati, Sirmaudi, Pangvali and Handuri have been included in the Critically Endangered Languages list of the UNESCO Report.

As per the information, given by the Union Human Resource Development Minister Smriti Irani, in the Lok Sabha, stated that the Government of India has initiated a Scheme “Protection and Preservation of Endangered Languages of India”.

Under this Scheme, the Central Institute of Indian Languages (CIIL), Mysore works on protection, preservation and documentation of all the mother tongues/languages of India spoken by less than 10,000 speakers keeping in mind the degree of endangerment and reduction in the domains of usage.

According to the criteria adopted by the UNESCO, a language becomes extinct when nobody speaks or remembers the language. The UNESCO has categorized languages in four bases viz. Vulnerable, Definitely Endangered, Severely Endangered and Critically Endangered.

Forty two of Indian languages were featured in the Critically Endangered list of UNESCO report and that are Aimol, Aka, Lamgang, Koireng, Purum and Tarao of Manipur, Baghati, Sirmaudi, Pangvali and Handuri of Himachal Pradesh, Mra, Na, Tangam of Arunachal Pradesh, Naiki, Nihali, Gadaba of Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Parji, Pengo and Manda of Odisha, Onge, Pu, Sanenyo, Muot, Sentilese, Shompen, Luro, Takahanyilang, Great Andamanese, Lamongse, Jarawa of Andaman & Nicobar, Bellari, Koraga and Kuruba of Karnataka, Tai Nora, Tai Rong of Assam, Kota and Toda of Tamil Nadu, Bangani of Uttarakhand, Birhor of Jharkhand, Kuruba of Karnataka, Ruga of Meghalaya and Toto of West Bengal.